Cleveland banker Mike Gibbons to run for U.S. Senate, setting up GOP primary against Josh Mandel

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Mike Gibbons, a Cleveland-area businessman and wealthy Republican political donor, said Wednesday he will seek to upend the GOP U.S. Senate primary by jumping in the race.

Gibbons, who has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican political causes but never sought elected office before, said he is concerned about the rising costs of healthcare, and the U.S.'s complicated tax code.

"All of my friends think I'm crazy," Gibbons said in a phone interview. "I'm largely running because I have five kids and five grandkids, and I don't like their prospects and the way things are going."

Gibbons, 64, is the senior managing director of Brown Gibbons Lang & Company, a Cleveland investment banking firm. He will face off against Republican Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, who is unusually well established in the race at this early stage, in trying to unseat Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown next year.

This dynamic has led some to search for another candidate to challenge Mandel -- last week, BuzzFeed News reported some Ohio Republican operatives and donors were trying to recruit J.D. Vance, the "Hillbilly Elegy" author who has been making the rounds in county Republican dinners this year. Jai Chabria, a spokesman for Vance, said Vance is "flattered by the response" to what he has to say, but that he is focusing on advocating for policies to help the opioid epidemic and helping attract investments to Ohio.

Gibbons is not extremely well known in political circles, but has donated more than $471,000 to Republican candidates and causes since 2004, according to FEC records. That includes $10,000 he gave in 2014 to New Day for America, the Super PAC affiliated with Kasich's presidential bid. He also donated $2,700 each to Portman and Donald Trump in 2016. Gibbons was part of a group of Republican Cuyahoga County donors who in December backed Jane Timken's successful effort to replace former state GOP Chair Matt Borges.

FEC records show he gave to one Democrat -- in 2005, he gave $4,200 to Jack Carter, the son of former President Jimmy Carter, who ran as a Democrat for a senate seat in Nevada that year.

Past statements Gibbons has made on globalization might contrast with Trump's "America First" economic message -- or at least show how the GOP's rhetoric on international trade has changed in recent years. In 2005, Gibbons told Crain's Cleveland Business that Cleveland's "radical leftist" congressional representatives -- at the time, Dennis Kucinich and the late Stephanie Tubbs Jones -- were harming the city by fighting the forces of globalization.

"The battle is over between socialism and capitalism, and capitalism won," Gibbons told the publication. "If our politicians want to keep fighting that battle, we will end up looking like Youngstown. If you can have the same product on the shelf out of China, with the same level of risk as far as getting it there and development costs, invariably, in a free market, all those jobs (making that product) are going to move to China. And we better face it."

J.D. Winteregg, a political activist who is serving as a Mandel campaign chair in Miami County, threw a figurative elbow at Gibbons over his past comments on globalization.

"I know he's been working on making a dollar for his company, but we're more interested in getting jobs here, and good-paying jobs. A focus on China and elsewhere is not something that necessarily helps us here in Ohio," Winteregg said.

Asked about Trump, Gibbons told cleveland.com: "He's not my style. But you know, what he's trying to do and the people he's trying to help, it's a good thing. He's upsetting the apple cart for both Democrats and the Republicans, and they're fighting every time he turns around."

Gibbons told cleveland.com he does not plan to self-fund his campaign.

"I've built a lot of friends over the years, and people who know me and trust me, and I'm hoping they come through," Gibbons said. "If I would have to self-fund, then I don't think I should be running, so that is not my intention. Now, if we need a few bucks here or there, I'd be happy to help, but I think that's the case for any other candidate."

He continued, "I've actually hired people, I've actually started businesses, and I've taken the risks that businessmen take. And you know, I can't say that about most of our politicians out there. Everyone' yelling 'jobs, jobs, jobs,' and they don't have the foggiest idea of how to create jobs."

Here's Gibbons' announcement video, posted to his website on Wednesday: